WARSAW (EJP)--- A 96-year old Polish woman who saved more than 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust, has been announced as an official candidate to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Irena Sendler was born in 1910 in the Warsaw suburb of Otwock. Just after the outbreak of WWII she began helping the Jews from the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942 a she became a head of the Children Department of the Council to Aid the Jews established by the Polish Underground Authorities.

As an employee of the Warsaw City Council Social Welfare Department, she had a special pass to the ghetto. On numerous occasions Sendler entered the closed Jewish district with the Star of David on her arm, leaving with Jewish children.

She took these youngsters and, with the fake documents, placed them in Polish families, orphanages or Catholic convents. She made sure she hid all the original certificates of birth certificates and other documents in jars, so after the war all the children could be returned to their Jewish families.

Capture and rescue

In 1943 she was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured and sentenced to death. During the tortures she didn’t give away any information about the children or the individuals involved in the Council to Aid the Jews.

She was, however, rescued by members of the Council, who bribed the German guards and helped her hide until the end of the war.

She is one of the last heroes from the generation of our parents and our grandparents, who when confronted by the unparalleled evil of twentieth century totalitarianism, revealed great bravery, simple conviction, and the power of human will and intention The Polish Jews Forum which has set up an online petition to support Irena Sendler's her candidture.

Sendler has since been honoured by many Holocaust organisations. In 1965 she was named on of the Righteous Among the Nations by the Jerusalem-based Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

And in 2003 she received the highest Polish decoration – the Order of the White Eagle.

Official endorsement

Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, officially support Sendler’s nomination to the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Polish Jews Forum has set up an online petition to support her candidture,

The open letter urges the Nobel prize committee “To honor a living person for heroic deeds that are by any measure the very essence of that work which must be not only emulated, but honored, in order to ensure a peaceful future for humankind. Rescuing the most vulnerable of an oppressed minority from the horror of totalitarian mass murder is the quintessence of charity and humanity.”

“She is one of the last heroes from the generation of our parents and our grandparents, who when confronted by the unparalleled evil of twentieth century totalitarianism, revealed great bravery, simple conviction, and the power of human will and intention,” the petition adds.